This week I am delighted to have a slice of cake with author Astrid V.J.
Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author, Astrid V.J. was born in South Africa. She is a trained social anthropologist and certified transformational life coach. She currently resides in Sweden with her husband and their two children. In early childhood, she showed an interest in reading and languages—interests which her family encouraged. Astrid started writing her first novel at age 12 and now writes fantasy in a variety of genres, exploring her passion for cultures and languages. When she isn’t writing, Astrid likes to read, take walks in nature, play silly games with her children, do embroidery, and play music.
Astrid writes transformation fiction: incorporating transformation principles in novels, rather than writing another self-help book. She loves exploring the human capacity for transformation and potential to achieve success in the face of adversity. Astrid is interested in minority group questions, considerations on social standards of beauty and the negative consequences these have, and would like to make the fantasy genre accessible to people of non-white, non-Christian backgrounds. Astrid feels the fantasy genre has become too restrictive with limited representations of race, ethnicity and culture. She seeks to explore other paths on this writing journey, incorporating her background in anthropology and psychology to create engaging experiences, which also provide food for thought on the diverse topics she finds most important. These include: racism, minority rights, cultural diversity, culture change, intolerance, humanity’s environmental impact, the representation of people on the autism spectrum in among the general populace, the human capacity for transformation, and much more.
What kind of books do you write?
For one thing, I take stories of old and mould them to better fit our modern worldview, exploring characters who are often left by the wayside but, in my opinion, are important characters to the older story. These novels of mine are filled with magic, daring adventures and social critique.
For another, I love to explore our human nature through my stories. As a social anthropologist, I love to focus on the issues that plague our society, but in a way that allows the reader to simply step away from the charged emotions brought on by our subjective relationship to the world we live in, and instead consider new angles, other ways of thinking and seek out alternatives by dressing my stories up in fantastical settings with magical beings as protagonists. My characters are bolstered by what I learned when studying psychology, as well as my passion for transformational life coaching.
Can you describe your writing why?
Why do we breathe air? Why do living beings grow? Why does blood flow?
I started writing novels when I was twelve. I’d been imagining stories from long before then, but that was the first idea that made it onto paper. I spent most of my teens writing. Hours and hours after school were dedicated to the craft, but at some point I saddled myself with the idea that becoming a writer was not the way forwards because I wouldn’t be able to turn it into a career. The concept of the struggling writer was forefront in my mind. When I was sixteen, I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a journalist, but after a week’s mini-internship at a local newspaper, I knew that was not the way to keep writing in my life.
I chose to study psychology, but didn’t want to give up on writing entirely, so also majored in English Literature. As part of my first year electives, I also took social anthropology, which became my second love and the subject I have continued with since. Despite my twenties being filled with writing academic papers, it was a very dark time for me. I kept slipping into depression for reasons I couldn’t properly understand because I ought to be happy. I had a great life, living in Mexico and later Sweden with the love of my life, working in an organization supporting Muslim immigrants in Sweden, growing my family with two beautiful children—I ought to have been happy, but I was not.
While I was on maternity leave with my daughter, I did some personal growth courses and realised that what was missing in my life was the writing. Since coming back to it and publishing the books I’d already written, I’ve grown back into myself and I am happier than I’ve been in a long, long time.
Share with us your favourite passage from the book you enjoyed writing the most
Each of my stories is very special to me, and choosing one scene is really hard, but I’ll try. Here is a snippet from my latest release, Dragons’ Daughter, a standalone novella in my collection of invented fairytales.
A shout of “Stop, Thief!” echoed through the alleys behind Fernanda and she could hear the thud of boots on the ground.
With a whimpered inhale, she lengthened her strides again and raced right at the next intersection. Two more turns and she’d be safe. No one could follow her through the escape hole she had for cases just like this one. As she hurtled forwards, Fernanda contemplated that these dashes away from the market district were becoming more and more common. Gone were the days when she was ten and less visible. Her latest growth spurt had done her absolutely no favours.
She skidded into the second last alley. So close! She could almost taste freedom past the sting of iron at the back of her throat. Her safety hole was just around the next corner.
Fernanda came to a sudden, impactful stop. Her body was flung backwards and she blinked to dissipate the stars sparking in her vision. The rank smell of unwashed body hung in the air and the sound of sniggers brought her focus onto a group of boys, all fully human. The one she’d hurtled into stood at the apex of a triangle and appeared to be their leader. He was almost-adult, Fernanda thought he might be nineteen or perhaps even twenty. Head and shoulders taller than her, the boy stepped forwards and grabbed Fernanda’s arm.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” he sneered, pulling his down-turned lips wide and showing crooked teeth. “If it isn’t the mongrel causing mayhem in the market—on our turf!”
The darkness of his fingers contrasted with the pale brown shade of Fernanda’s skin. While his companions chuckled, the leader glanced towards the turn she’d just careened around. Sounds of pursuit still echoed in the narrow streets and Fernanda realised the constables had spread out in search of her. Any moment, one of them would come across this alley and find her here. Fernanda’s pale brown skin stood out in this city filled with darker hues and her distinctive coily hair the shade of wheat made hiding in plain sight impossible. The constables hounding her tail would undoubtedly recognise her as the thief from the market and that would be the end of her days on the streets.
The fingers around her upper arm gripped tighter and the older boy’s eyes glittered. “And turning you in would—”
Fernanda took in a symbol of a red flame sewn into the boy’s tunic above his heart. The Red Flame was a notorious gang of thieves. Latching onto the knowledge and the certainty he wouldn’t actually want to meet with the constables chasing her, Fernanda lifted her chin and glared at him. “You think any constable will let members of the Red Flame go unharmed? They’ll chop your hands off as surely as they will mine. Let me go and we can all get out of this with our fingers attached to our bodies.”
The boy frowned and Fernanda took his momentary hesitation to jerk her arm free of his grasp. The shouts were getting louder and she knew she only had a few moments to get to safety. She took in the group of six boys blocking her path. None of these stout sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds with their broad shoulders could fit through her escape route. If she were only able to get into the next alley!
“Give me the loot and I’ll let you go.” The boy held out his hand.
Fernanda grasped her satchel instinctively. All this trouble for nothing? This was her meal for the foreseeable future. No. She’d fought too hard to get these scraps in the first place. Fernanda would not give in.
Over the next heartbeat’s thud in her chest, she heard the heavy slap of leather on stone. She could almost hear the wearer of those boots huffing as they approached the intersection behind her.
Time was up. Fernanda would have to get out of this now or forever live with the consequences. Following up the motion to protect her rightfully stolen loot, Fernanda dropped her head and took a step backwards. Then she pushed herself into a full sprint, ramming her head into her unsuspecting opponent’s midriff.
A soft oof wheezed out of the boy as he dropped to the ground when Fernanda side-stepped and dodged around the slack-jawed posse behind him. She was already darting into the alley when a shout went up behind her.
Fernanda didn’t look back, although she did hear the leader shout, “Leave her. It’s a dead-end anyway. She’s a caught fish. We must get out of here.”
Dead-end to you, tough guy, she thought as she spied the small hole at the foot of the smooth wall, three times higher than all the buildings around her. Pushing her satchel through in front of her, Fernanda wormed her way to the other side.
Tell us about your latest project
My last release was Finding the Way, the second book in the Wishmaster series. This is a futuristic fantasy project following an itinerant storyteller, Viola Alerion, and her mysterious apprentice. The two have very opposing views on how the world works and I enjoyed mixing up the mentor-mentee trope for this one. In the first book, The Apprentice Storyteller, the boy wants to learn the art of storytelling and insists Viola Alerion is the one to teach him, while she is an irascible middle-aged woman who doesn’t want anything to do with him. Nevertheless, he doesn’t take no for an answer and eventually she relents. As the story unfolds, it turns out the unassuming boy actually has something to teach Viola.
In Finding the Way, they first part ways, each establishing their own paths because friendships come and go, and there are times in our lives when we drift apart only for something to happen that brings us back together again and makes the friendship stronger.
Finding the Way is all about finding our feet, embracing our true selves and seeking to do good with our abilities. Viola Alerion really grows in this story. She faces her past, learns to love herself and starts living a life she loves. She also has a rather fun adventure taking on a corrupt and twisted system that’s causing immense damage to the environment and society as a whole.
My next release will be Johara's Choice, Elisabeth and Edvard's World Series Book 4.
Locked in a tower with the fear of prophecy holding her parents back, Johara dreams of freedom. However, her time in confinement is spent well, researching the true state of her country. When she realises her father has ignored the importance of ancient ritual, Johara must find a way to break free and avert the gathering catastrophe, or risk the annihilation of her people and their way of life.
Haunted by the horrors of war, Erik has given up hope of ever finding anything truly worth fighting for. When a twist of fate allows his path to cross Johara's, everything changes and he begins to hope there might yet be a chance at happiness. But can he embrace life and the spitfire princess who never does as she's told, running headlong into danger at every turn? Or will he let that, too, slip through his fingers.
Embark on a magical high-stakes adventure in this retelling of Andersen's fairytale, The Tinderbox.
What is your favourite cake?
I am one of those people who is terrible at choosing. I love to taste a bit of everything and I have no single favorite cake. When we go out to have cake and tea as a family, I’ll always order something the others have not and then we share.
Join me next week when I will be having a slice of cake with Havelah McLat.
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Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find out more about her books on her website
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